Light and Dark
by SerenityFalconNormandy
Summary: Written for the Dragon Age Reddit Weekly Writing Prompts: Darkness, Breathless, Prophecy, Kiss Solas's POV when Fen'lath finds him in Trespasser.


"Solas."

He flinched at her voice. Solas had meant to be long gone at first, until he had felt the Anchor discharge. It was a painful tearing through the Fade and the Veil, the screech of a violin string shattering through what should be harmony. The Qunari and their Viddasala had provided a momentary distraction, then he turned away because he could not face her, not without taking a moment to steel himself.

Turning and looking over his shoulder at her, he drank in the changes.

Fen'lath had cut her hair. Though he knew he had no right to, he mourned the midnight waterfall he'd often tucked behind her ear as they lay in bed. Despite everything, she stood tall, proud, and no longer tilted her head like she was hiding her missing vallaslin.

Mythal's voice echoed through his mind, amused. _Such strength in that mayfly body. The light in the darkness, a pity she wasn't born in our time. _It echoed a prophecy a much younger Mythal had spoken not long before her demise. "_Your light will guide you through your darkest times, and yet you will be the one to extinguish that flame. You must, or all will be lost."_

A thrum ran over his skin, and again the Anchor exploded in Fen's palm. Her screams of agony knifed through him, and the pull of the Anchor gravitating towards him scratched nails over his skin. Solas stepped forward, keeping the turmoil he felt locked inside poorly hidden. He had done this to her. She was going to die because of him. Unless…

Solas pulled on the Fade as he had not done in centuries, and flooded the Anchor with the raw energy, calming it and ending those awful cries of pain. The Anchor shrank, becoming a tiny slash of green as it had been when he had left the Inquisition. Fen stood immediately, tear-streaked face turning up to his, eyes searching for something. With the pain no longer pinching her features, he could see new freckles had come in, and the scars from Haven had faded to thin divots, adding to, never detracting from, her beauty.

"That should give us more time. I suspect you have questions." He couldn't help but meet her eyes, Fade green and stunning as ever.

Her voice, rough from the screaming, breathed out a raspy, "Later."

She stole his breath, leaping at him. He reflexively caught her against him, her arms coming up to clutch at his shoulders and neck to pull his mouth to hers. His defenses crumbled immediately at the first lungfull of elfroot and embrium-scented air, the cool tang of a health potion on her tongue. Mythal snarled at him, telling him to remember their purpose, reminding him he had to take the Anchor - and Fen's life - to have any hope of succeeding, and he was losing himself in her again.

She let out a shuddering sob against his mouth, "I missed you so much."

He was long lost. Lifting Fen high against him, he strode from the marshy ground to the soft grass under one of the trees. "_Ma theneras_."

With all that was before him, the road he would travel alone, he needed his waking dream, his light in the darkness. With the fresh memory of her scent in his lungs, her taste on his lips, her warmth filling his heart, he could march to his death in peace.

What was success, without her?

* * *

Fen remained singularly distracting as they talked. They had been silent for long moments as they re-dressed. The buckles of her armor, so recently shoved aside in their desperation for each other after too long, rested crooked, one misbuckled. There was a blossom, fallen from the tree they had lain together under, stuck in her hair. Solas was pondering reaching out to take it when she asked, "What about the mark?"

She held up her palm. He could feel the painful thrumming that let him know that his temporary measure to keep the Anchor stable was drawing to an end. A flutter at the back of his consciousness concerned him. It almost felt like Mythal was undoing his repairs.

"There's still the matter of the Anchor. It's getting worse."

"I know, vhenan. And we are running out of time."

Solas felt the moment it gave way, and the Anchor exploded in Fen's palm. The first shriek of agony brought tears to his eyes. It sounded too close to the same cry she had made when he witnessed the loss of their baby boy in the Fade. That cry had haunted his dreams. _Make it quick, Dread Wolf. Do not make her suffer any more than she has to._

So this was it. But, Solas felt in his heart, it did not have to be the end Mythal saw. Kneeling in front of Fen, he said softly, "The mark will eventually kill you. Drawing you here gave me the chance to save you… At least for now."

Desperate, tear-filled Fade green eyes locked with his. "I won't give up on you. Solas, var lath vir suledin."

_Do it, Dread Wolf! You know what you must do!_

"I wish it could, vhenan." Fen screamed in pain again, and he leaned close, pressing the palm with the Anchor in it to his chest. His heart. Solas could feel Mythal's fury, _this was not her plan_. "My love…"

He pulled her close, one last kiss. Just one more... He felt the terrible tension in her body release as he cradled her to him, pulling the Anchor into himself. As their breath mingled, he carefully and precisely dug out every root, every tendril, every trace that could harm Fen. The hand and part of her arm were a ruin. Leaving it would mean leaving his heart, his waking dream in agony for the rest of her days, however long they were. _You only delay the inevitable! _Mythal's tone became desperate. _At least take the Well from her!_

He stood, leaving Fen kneeling with a flushed face, reddened lips, her hand and arm dissolving into ether. "I will never forget you."

Solas turned, walking back to the Eluvian, not turning when he heard her call to him, "Solas! Fen'Harel! Please!"

She didn't know that he had spared her, even as Mythal was battering at him, furious that he had ignored her demands.

_This will ruin everything! All of my -our- plans!_

He opened his palm, looking at the blossom he had pulled from Fen'lath's hair, and smiled, slowly, secretly.

_Good._


End file.
